


Come Home

by astralfreckles



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: 5 Times, Best Friends, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 22:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11194656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralfreckles/pseuds/astralfreckles
Summary: 5 times Riley and Farkle discover the meaning of home





	Come Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fineh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fineh/gifts).



> This was inspired by [fineh's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fineh/pseuds/fineh) video [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAecXS9KW5s) and songs with the theme of “coming home.” I used their lyrics at the beginning of each section, and I’ll include the names of the songs in the end notes. 
> 
> In the past, I’ve thought a lot about what a home is, and for me it’s more of a feeling than a place. I guess sometimes it’s hard to describe, but I hope that this fic will make you reflect on the idea of home like I have. To me, Riley and Farkle would have been each other’s home ♥

_**1.** **Your eyes look like coming home.** _

One day on the walk home from elementary school, Riley’s dad takes her to a local toy store. He tells her she can pick out anything she wants, so she happily skips around the store searching for something special. She stops when she reaches a bin full of small, sky blue tubes.

“Dad, what are these?”

“They’re kaleidoscopes, sweetie,” Cory says as he stands beside her.

Riley plucks one out of the bin and asks, “What does it do?”

“Look inside it and you’ll find out.”

Riley puts one end up to her eye and is greeted by nearly every shade of blue imaginable. She turns the rotating piece and watches as different shapes form out of nowhere. When a collection of misty blue glass pieces fills the space, she immediately stops rotating it. The color is so familiar to her, because it’s the color of her best friend’s eyes. Farkle’s eyes were that exact shade of blue, like the sky after a rainstorm. She loves that blue, and she loves his eyes.

“I want this,” she says confidently, hugging the kaleidoscope to her chest.

“Out of all of the things in this store?” Cory asks, perplexed.

“Yes, out of everything in here.”

So Cory buys the kaleidoscope for Riley, and she ends up looking into it all night. Her mother has to force her away from it just so she will sit down at the dinner table. Later, she sneaks one more look before she goes to bed. When she closes her eyes, all she can see is blue skies and Farkle’s eyes.

\---------------------------

The next morning, Riley safely tucks the kaleidoscope into her backpack and brings it to school with her. After she enters the classroom, she sits down at her seat and takes the small tube out of her backpack. She looks through it expecting to see the misty blue she loves so much, but traveling between home and school must have made it bump around too much, and so instead she sees bright cerulean and turquoise blues. She frowns in disappointment and turns the rotating piece rapidly, trying to find her favorite color again.

More kids filter into the classroom, and while Riley is still looking through the tube, she hears Farkle’s voice as he slowly approaches her.

“Hey, cool kaleidoscope! Can I look into it?” he asks cheerfully.

Riley lowers the tube and Farkle comes into view in front of her. Her gaze goes directly to his eyes, and as she looks into them, the color captivates her completely. She drops the kaleidoscope to the ground and lunges toward Farkle, hugging him as tightly as she can.

“Well, good morning to you, too,” Farkle chuckles. Despite not knowing why his best friend is acting oddly, Farkle hugs her back with the same intensity.

Riley pulls away from the hug and stares at Farkle. Recognizing that her actions probably seem strange to him, she blushes and explains, “My dad bought me that kaleidoscope yesterday and it made me realize something, Farkle. I don’t know why, but your eyes makes me feel calm, like everything will be okay. Does that sound weird?”

A warm smile forms on Farkle’s face as he replies, “Kind of, but I think I know how you feel.”

Farkle walks over to kaleidoscope and picks it up from the ground. Riley watches as he puts it up to his eye and turns it a couple of times. After a few seconds, his hand stops and he stays still, just gazing into the tube. Then, he lowers it from his face, and with an even bigger smile than before, he extends his free hand out toward Riley. She follows a straight path to Farkle and grabs his hand without hesitation.

Riley knows the blue gems in the kaleidoscope are pretty, but nothing will ever compare to what is actually right in front of her. Looking into Farkle’s eyes makes her feel safe. They feel like home.

 

 

**_2\. Could you find yourself a way home?_ **

Farkle and Riley walk out of Topanga’s and into the warm spring night. As the high school years pass, everyone in their group seems to stay later and later at the bakery to complete their school work together.

Farkle looks at the stairs leading up to the street above and asks Riley, “Can you and Maya get back to your home alright? Do you want me to walk you there?”

“I think we’ll be okay, Farkle. It’s not that late.”

He looks at his watch and states, “Actually, it’s almost eleven.”

“Oh, that is later than I expected!”

“See?”

“It’s fine, though. The two of us will be walking together,” she explains.

Suddenly, Farkle’s eyes catch the reflection of the moonlight and seem to sparkle for just a moment. Riley imagines this is the type of thing that would happen in a romantic movie scene. The girl would look into the boy’s eyes and fall madly in love.

A rush of emotions and memories come over Riley, making her continue in a soft whisper, “Maybe I’m already home.”

“What?” Farkle asks, caught off guard by her words.

“I think…well, I think I’m already home,” Riley replies.

“No, Riley. I’m pretty sure we’re in front of your mom’s bakery,” he says as he gets pushed left and right by a group of students passing through to leave, “which we should probably move away from.”

“Fine,” she says, grabbing Farkle’s hand and pulling him away from the crowd. “But even standing here in this spot instead, I’m still home.”

“Wow, you must be more tired than I thought. Let’s get you home.”

“No, Farkle. You’re not getting it,” she says in a flustered tone. She’s still holding on to his hand, which is warm as it presses up against hers. He silently stares at her, his eyes full of curiosity, and she continues, “My home, well, I don’t think it’s a house. It’s not even a bay window. It’s…it’s…”

“Okay, ready to go?” Maya interrupts as she walks out of the bakery and toward Riley and Farkle.

“It’s _you_ ,” Riley declares a little louder than she means to, finally getting out the words but startling the other two in the process.

Maya blinks her eyes a few times and then cautiously asks, “What did I miss?”

The three of them stand there in silence. Riley anxiously waits for something to happen, for Farkle to at least _say something_ , but he doesn’t. Seconds go by and he says nothing.

In a movie, this is the part where the boy would have declared his love for the girl. He would have swept her off of her feet. But this isn’t a movie, and her boy is only speechless and confused.

“Nothing. Let’s go, Maya,” Riley says, letting go of Farkle’s hand. Before turning around, she solemnly adds, “Goodnight, Farkle.”

The girls are halfway up the stairs when Farkle stutters something, but it gets lost in the city noise. Unaware, Riley and Maya keep walking without looking back. Their figures disappear into the city streets, leaving Farkle alone in front of the bakery.

They’re only a few minutes down the street when Maya stops Riley in her tracks. She grabs hold of her arm and looks Riley straight in the eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“I honestly don’t know, Maya,” Riley replies, staring down at her feet as she walks.

“Okay, then I have a suggestion for you. Turn around and go back to that boy.”

“What?”

Maya explains, “I don’t know what you two were talking about, but whatever it was, it shook him up, Riley. It shook him up good.” She yanks Riley’s backpack off of her back and nudges her in the direction of the bakery. “Go,” she adds.

“How do you know he will even still be there?”

“I have a funny hunch that he will.”

Maya gives Riley a knowing smile and lightly nudges her again for encouragement. Then, Riley takes in a deep breath and runs back.

When she approaches the bakery, she’s relieved to find Farkle still there. He’s now sitting at one of the tables with his head resting on top of his folded arms. He looks like he’s asleep, so Riley quietly descends the stairs as to not wake him, but when she reaches the bottom step, Farkle quickly lifts his head.

The second Farkle recognizes that it’s Riley, he jumps up out of his chair, and then slowly, he raises both of his arms. They’re stretched out open wide toward Riley, waiting for her, and she wastes no time running into them.

“See,” she whispers into his chest, “I had no problem finding my way home.”

Tightening his hold on Riley, Farkle admits, “I should never have doubted that you would.”

 

 

_**3\. I want to come home to you.** _

Farkle’s off-campus college apartment is currently a mess. Textbooks are stacked on the coffee table in the living room for a study session he and Riley are having before finals week, and pillows litter the floor from a spontaneous pillow fight they had a few hours earlier during a much needed break.

But now, they’re all business. They’re sitting on Farkle’s couch, Riley leaning against one armrest while Farkle is across from her against the other, tangled up in laptop wires and engrossed in their readings.

“Farkle, what are we going to do after college?” Riley asks, her voice suddenly breaking the silence.

Farkle looks up at her through his reading glasses and answers, “Well, I’m assuming we’re going to establish our careers, save up some money. That sort of thing, yeah?”

“No, I mean with us. What are _we_ going to be?”

“You want to have that discussion now?” he asks as he gestures to all of their scattered papers and materials laid out messily on the floor in front of them.

“Yes, I really do.”

“Are you worried about us for some reason?”

“No, not really,” Riley says, stretching her legs out on the couch. Her feet brush up against Farkle’s legs, so he quickly tickles them, making Riley let out a yelp. She swats his hand away and continues, “But life only gets harder from here, Farkle. We’re going to keep changing. The world will be constantly challenging us in some way. So, how sure are you about us?”

“Completely sure.”

“How do you know?”

“I guess I just really know what I want for my future. I want to come home to you every day. Maybe we’ll have a small, cozy apartment together. And I want to learn to cook with you and fall asleep next to you.”

“You know, you can literally sleep next to me right now. Farkle Minkus, you can even sleep _with_ me if you want.”

Farkle’s eyes widen as he whines, “Oh my god, Riley. Are we taking this conversation seriously or not?”

Laughing, Riley responds, “We are! We are, I promise.”

“What I’m trying to say is, this apartment that I rented for senior year is nice, but it’s not _ours_. You’re not fully a part of it, and for a place to be a home, the integral piece that I need is you. So for the future, if I want to have a home, I need you with me, always.”

“Sounds like the perfect future to me.”

With a smile, Riley makes her way to the other side of the couch where Farkle is. Now on her knees in front of him, Riley inches closer, and when Farkle leans forward, their lips collide. They only dare to break apart once they’re left completely breathless.

“So, how about we rewind a couple minutes back to that part when you mentioned sleeping, preferably the kind that’s followed by _with_.”

Riley chuckles and asks, “What about studying?”

Farkle closes the textbook that’s on his lap and sets it on the coffee table. Then, with a smirk, he grabs hold of Riley’s hips and asks, “What studying?”

 

 

_**4\. Come home, because I’ve been waiting for you for so long.** _

They’ve had an argument. It's the first one they've had since they moved into their new apartment together.

It all happened so quickly. Farkle raised his voice, so Riley did as well, both of them competing to be heard. Then, Riley packed a bag and slammed the door on her way out. It wasn’t even about anything important. Farkle had a bad day and ended up letting it out on Riley unintentionally. They didn’t mean for it to get so out of hand.

But here they are, now in two separate places. Farkle’s sitting alone in their newly remodeled apartment, and Riley is at her parents' place. She’s sitting at the kitchen table with her father when they both hear the phone ring. She gives her father a look, her eyes pleading for him not to pick it up, but his eyes stare back at hers, silently challenging her apprehension. Riley takes a deep breath in, and then Cory answers the phone.

“Farkle?”

“Mr. Matthews, Riley won’t answer her phone. Could you put her on? I need to talk to her.”

“She’s pretty upset here, Farkle.”

“Please, sir.”

With a sigh, Cory gives in, “Hold on.”

Cory hands over the phone to Riley, gives her shoulder a squeeze, and then leaves the room.

“Yeah?” Riley mumbles. Her voice is quiet and hoarse.

“Riley,” Farkle utters, but nothing else comes out after it. He has no clue where to start.

“Just say what you need to say, Farkle.”

“Come home, Riley. Please,” he begs quietly.

“I can’t,” she whispers back. “I want to be alone right now. I need time to just think.”

“Think about what?” Farkle asks. When he doesn’t get a response, he repeats in an anxious tone, “Think about what, Riley?”

“We’ll talk later, okay?”

Riley hangs up abruptly and sets the phone down on the table. She wipes away a few stray tears before getting up and making her way to her bedroom. When she opens the door to her childhood room, she feels like she’s been transported in time. Old photos, her favorite purple bedspread, and a few pairs of her old boots are all still in the same place they were when she left for college. The bay window looks as beautiful as ever as the glow of the moon shines down on it through the window.

Riley lies down in her bed, waiting for a sense of familiarity to wash over her, but instead, she feels completely out of place. There’s nothing but silence around her, and there’s an empty space next to her where Farkle should be. None of it feels right.

It doesn’t take long for Riley to understand what she has to do. She gathers all of her things and packs them back into her bag. She inches toward her parents’ room and quietly peeks inside. They’re already asleep, but she figures they’ll know where she went when they find her bed empty tomorrow morning.

When Riley finally arrives back to her and Farkle’s apartment, she walks in with caution, not sure what to expect. But she looks around and notices that the apartment is quiet and everything is as it should be.

She tiptoes into their bedroom and finds Farkle fast asleep. Leaning against the door frame, she watches as his chest rises and falls with every breath he takes. Then suddenly, Riley is pulled toward him, walking to the bed. It’s like an invisible force is telling her where to go, where she _needs to be_.

She gently pulls the covers back on her side of the bed and slides in next to Farkle. Now that she’s close to him, she can make out his face in the darkness and hear him lightly snoring. She holds in a laugh and brings her hand up to his face, softly stroking across his cheek. Farkle’s eyes open at her touch and take a few seconds to process the figure in front of him. When he does, his hand encloses around Riley’s, and he leans forward to rest his forehead against hers.

“Welcome home,” Farkle whispers.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Riley falls asleep in a matter of seconds, because now, everything feels right with Farkle by her side.

_  
_

 

**_5\. I can’t find my way home._ **

A few years later, after creating a kind of routine together, Riley and Farkle come to find out that mornings are always hectic in their apartment. Riley has to pack her teacher bag with graded papers and lesson plan books before leaving for the school day, and Farkle has to preview all the emails that accumulated overnight before going to the office. Somehow, despite the craziness, they always make time for each other.

Farkle puts his phone in his pocket and picks up two bananas as he passes the kitchen counter on his way to Riley.

Handing her one of the bananas, he says, “You always forget to eat in the morning.”

Riley gives him a tired smile and says, “Thanks. That big meeting is today, right?”

“Yeah, we’ve been preparing a presentation to show our business partners for months now. Dad and I will be the first to speak on behalf of Minkus International.”

Riley grabs hold of Farkle’s hand and reassures him, “You’ll do great. You’ve always been good at public speaking.”

Farkle jokes, “Are you fondly thinking back to all the times I beat you during the debates in your father’s class?”

“I’m thinking about it, but not fondly,” Riley says with a laugh. While she makes her way to the coat rack, she adds, “Oh, by the way, I have some errands to run today after work, so I’ll be back a little later than usual. So I’ll probably see you at five, right?”

Farkle follows her and picks up a light brown coat from the rack. He tugs at Riley’s arm, making her lift both of them up in the air. Farkle helps her into the coat and answers, “If they don’t unexpectedly pile on more work at the end of the day, then five it is.”

After putting on his own jacket, he gives Riley a quick kiss and turns to open the front door, but Riley grabs Farkle’s arm and sneaks in one more kiss before saying, “See you at home later.”

\---------------------------

Riley enters their apartment a little after five, exhausted from the long day of teaching. She notices the lights are still off and realizes Farkle isn't home yet. A laugh escapes her lips, because of course they kept Farkle late at work. He has trouble saying no when his colleagues ask a favor of him. It’s happened so many times, she knows she should be used to it by now.

Six o’clock rolls by, and then seven and eight. Riley makes a simple dinner, homemade chicken soup, and sits down at the table. She waits and waits, but he never comes.

There’s a knock at the door around eight thirty, and in that moment she knows. She feels it in her gut. Her legs give out as she gets up from the kitchen table, but somehow she makes it to the door and opens it to find two police officers waiting for her. They tell her it was a drunk driver. He ran off the road and onto the sidewalk in front of the Minkus International building, and Farkle wasn’t the only fatality.

They stay with Riley until her and Farkle’s parents make it to the apartment, but no matter who’s there with her, she feel alone. She feels utterly and completely _empty_.

Cory and Topanga sit by Riley’s side on the couch, rubbing her back and whispering to her as she curls in on herself in defeat, while Jennifer and Stuart make heartbreaking phone calls to close relatives. With her knees hugged closely to her chest and tears streaming down her face, she unknowingly drifts off to sleep beside her parents.

\---------------------------

Riley’s eyes open a few hours later to find the living room dark. There’s a blanket over her and a pillow under her head. She lifts her head up and runs her hand over the pillow, finding comfort for just a moment in its softness. She looks around the room, her eyes squinting to make out certain objects, but everything in her line of sight is unfamiliar to her. Riley knows this is where she lives, but that’s all it is. It’s always ever been just a place. Her home, her _true home_ , is now gone.

Riley struggles to stand up, but once she’s finally able to, all her body does is move her back and forth, walking one way and then turning around to walk the other way. She repeats this over and over until she feels like she’s going to be sick. Disoriented, Riley cradles her head in her hands and falls to the floor. She has no clue where she’s trying to go, but it’s as if her heart is instinctually searching for what she has lost. It’s searching for that safe feeling, an effortless comfort, unconditional love, everything that was _her Farkle_.

But she can’t find her way back to it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Songs used for the fic:
> 
> Everything Has Changed- Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran  
> Peaches- New Heights  
> Come Home- OneRepublic  
> Talk Me Down- Troye Sivan  
> Can’t Find My Way Home- Blind Faith
> 
> (The last song honestly is more of a Supernatural song in my mind because it is used in an excellent way in episode 9x22, but I really wanted to use it in this fic for Riley and Farkle.)


End file.
